Winter Olympics: the North Korean threat? Fourcade “calm enough on the subject”

Designated to be the flag bearer of the tricolor delegation at the Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Martin Fourcade relies on the organizers to ensure the safety of the athletes.

Martin Fourcade is not worried. Flag bearer of the French team at the Winter Games in South Korea in 2018, the king of the world biathlon assured Wednesday that he was “calm enough on the subject” of safety despite the tensions that shake the Korean peninsula and verbal escalation between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un .

The worry of Flessel

In an interview with RTL, Sports Minister Laura Flessel expressed concern a week ago about the Olympics in Pyeongchang, 80km from the North Korean border. “If we do not manage to have a security affirmed, our team of France will stay here”, she had alerted, while no politician had so far cast doubt on the participation of his country in the Olympics of 2018.

The former Olympic fencing champion had somewhat retro-cycled the next day, assuring that she had never considered a “boycott”. “My role is to preserve and protect this team from France, and today it is training to get the Olympic Grail, and what I’m asking you to do is to let it train in a serene way. “, she told AFP.

A “mark of confidence” for Fourcade

Designated Tuesday flag bearer by the French national Olympic and sports committee, Fourcade also explained that he had taken time to “mature” his decision before accepting this proposal “I risk being one of the athletes who is going to run the most at the Games and the guarantees that I had really comforted me in the fact that this role of flag-bearer and my sporting ambitions were compatible “, detailed the double Pyrenean Olympic champion.

“The opening ceremony took place two days before my first race, and not the day before, as it was four years ago, which made my decision change during the pre-Olympic stage in May at the Londe- the Moors where I felt from the athletes a real desire that it is me, and it is true that I was touched by this support and this mark of confidence “, added Fourcade, who succeeds Jason Lamy-Chappuis , flag bearer in Sochi in 2014.